The Killing Joke
I love the D.C. universe. I am not an avid fan like most, but I enjoy D.C. over Marvel. I do not know all the stories behind the various faces of the Joker, but I am familiar with the faces themselves. Red Hood, I assume, is yet another sort of origin story. If I followed this graphic novel right, we seem to get a background on the Joker. I know various comic universes rely on the same characters at different times? Yeah, I am not too well versed in the matter of the same character "different forms." Again, comics are not really my usual thing. I like stories that have characters that carry through with the same history. I feel like comic universes get messy this way, and again, this could come from my lack of knowledge. I read comics, but do I grasp the entire concept? Only for the one that is in front of me, not as a whole if the story changes somewhere. And, I often feel it does when it comes to these things. I can read and follow what is presented to me with no problem, but when timelines change, or alternate universes start popping up, I am lost.
Let's focus on the Joker here. So, we learn that he was dealing with poverty and expecting to start a family. By that, I mean the family was going to get another member very soon, and he needed to provide for them. So, he starts seeking other jobs for money. He receives some deal where he needs to break into some sort of plant he used to work at. The day/night he is supposed to, he gets out of hanging out with his wife. Who, unfortunately, dies from a freak accident. Could his snap have been a direct link he made in his head about had he just not made an excuse and been there, would things be different? It is hard to say. The comic actually brands him as seemingly emotionless. I felt a massive lack of emotion when he got the news about her death. Yes, he tried to get out of the job, but also, I felt the images did not show much. Is there a reason we were locked out of his head and not shown such an emotional reaction? Is that s symbol of his pain? We all cope differently.
We do see the Joker scared or in fear. We recognize that often in the short comic. Between being thought of as a ring-leader, Batman with him in the cell, and at the end when Bruce drops in on him through the glass. I feel the only solid he had in his life was Bruce Wayne. Is it bad that the one you hate the most is your single reliable person? Probably doesn't feel too great, that's for sure. His history gives him the push, but I had to sit on the comment from Batman about not everyone snaps under pressure. I think he is right. There are plenty of people who suffer from abuse and turn out as an excellent functioning human being. While we also see most, if not all, psychos have a lousy history. So, what separates them? Is it similar to the chemical imbalance and the seasonal depression people? One is always there, and the other is just a reactive response? Are you born with some psychopathic genes? See, then it starts drifting off into shit that sounds nonsensical. I feel like you could line nine people up, all with a traumatic history, and try and have a group identity which is most likely to turn violent. Then people would start to see trauma as violence. I really don't think there is a solid answer on it.
Off my philosophical badgering, the Joker breaks out of jail, again, hurts some people, targets the commissioner and his daughter, and then gets caught again. All for what? To tell the joke that Bruce cut him off from saying at the beginning? Possibly. It is difficult to talk about something so straight cut. He did this, and it is a cycle. He shot an innocent girl, embarrassed and attempted to mentally drain and trigger a powerful man, left some dude dead on one of the carnival's rides so the contract of some sort would clear without him having to pay. At the end of the day, we all know the Joker is a straight psycho, regardless of what alternate universe you catch him in. I will say, some of the images of him in the graphic novel were adorable. In the comics, I adore how his face shape looks. Movies really fail to meet how great he looks in the comics. He just looks like someone that may be off his rocker, but looks great doing it!
Let's focus on the Joker here. So, we learn that he was dealing with poverty and expecting to start a family. By that, I mean the family was going to get another member very soon, and he needed to provide for them. So, he starts seeking other jobs for money. He receives some deal where he needs to break into some sort of plant he used to work at. The day/night he is supposed to, he gets out of hanging out with his wife. Who, unfortunately, dies from a freak accident. Could his snap have been a direct link he made in his head about had he just not made an excuse and been there, would things be different? It is hard to say. The comic actually brands him as seemingly emotionless. I felt a massive lack of emotion when he got the news about her death. Yes, he tried to get out of the job, but also, I felt the images did not show much. Is there a reason we were locked out of his head and not shown such an emotional reaction? Is that s symbol of his pain? We all cope differently.
We do see the Joker scared or in fear. We recognize that often in the short comic. Between being thought of as a ring-leader, Batman with him in the cell, and at the end when Bruce drops in on him through the glass. I feel the only solid he had in his life was Bruce Wayne. Is it bad that the one you hate the most is your single reliable person? Probably doesn't feel too great, that's for sure. His history gives him the push, but I had to sit on the comment from Batman about not everyone snaps under pressure. I think he is right. There are plenty of people who suffer from abuse and turn out as an excellent functioning human being. While we also see most, if not all, psychos have a lousy history. So, what separates them? Is it similar to the chemical imbalance and the seasonal depression people? One is always there, and the other is just a reactive response? Are you born with some psychopathic genes? See, then it starts drifting off into shit that sounds nonsensical. I feel like you could line nine people up, all with a traumatic history, and try and have a group identity which is most likely to turn violent. Then people would start to see trauma as violence. I really don't think there is a solid answer on it.
Off my philosophical badgering, the Joker breaks out of jail, again, hurts some people, targets the commissioner and his daughter, and then gets caught again. All for what? To tell the joke that Bruce cut him off from saying at the beginning? Possibly. It is difficult to talk about something so straight cut. He did this, and it is a cycle. He shot an innocent girl, embarrassed and attempted to mentally drain and trigger a powerful man, left some dude dead on one of the carnival's rides so the contract of some sort would clear without him having to pay. At the end of the day, we all know the Joker is a straight psycho, regardless of what alternate universe you catch him in. I will say, some of the images of him in the graphic novel were adorable. In the comics, I adore how his face shape looks. Movies really fail to meet how great he looks in the comics. He just looks like someone that may be off his rocker, but looks great doing it!
I'm like you. The way comic book superheros (and their villains) stick around for decades constantly getting revamped is not my preferred way of approaching stories. I also feel like they have this ability to retcon things that didn't make sense with more things that didn't make sense, but if you point it out to a comics fan, they will tell you "NO! In DC's expanded dark past alternate future lemur universe, this is explained by X." That's why I stick mostly to contained stories when I go for graphic novels. I'm glad you also picked up on the fact that Batman is right when he says not everybody snaps after one bad day, seems like most folks take the opposite idea away from this story. I know you've talked about it before; how trauma, even extended trauma, does not alone a killer make. Perhaps that's why his reaction to everything prior to becoming the Joker seemed distant to you? Maybe he already wasn't quite right somehow... a little sociopathic and caught up in himself. Then, it's that plus the trauma that shapes him to who he is and sends him on his pointless path.
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